Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've had the emerald for nearly a year now.
She *was* very handleable, not jumpy, flighty, or anything like that--

I had her in a screen-top enclosure (yha yha I know) -- had her in there for around 7 months. The screen was covered and I didn't have humidity problems.

I bought her one of those vision cages thats made for emeralds- had the 2 branch things in it.
She has been in there for 3 months -- she shed yesterday - or attempted to.
I mist and mist and mist, and water and water and water, and soak her and soak her and soak her.

How the hell is the humidity in the vision cage worse than what I had going in the screen-top cage?

On top of the humidity problems- she's getting rather... NOT NICE towards ... everything....

I would just put her back in the screen top cage I had her in before but its a bit tight and she's out grown it.
I have a different screen top cage I can put her in... but I'm needing some ideas.

I don't like having loose substrate- tried that the first 2 months while in the vision cage-- not a fan of picking bark and crap out of her mouth after she's just eaten... not my cup-a-joe.

I saw someone's pictures that had a brazilian rainbow boa-- they had like a sterilite snap top tub- maybe a 6 or 12 qt - inside the cage- with spaghnum moss inside.
If I were to set something like that inside her cage- do you think she would use it... the pic i saw just had a hole cut out of the lid so it held humidity very well and gave the snake a place to be humid....

ideas?

~Beth
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The rescue site: www.freewebs.com/okreptilerescue

do you have a humidity gauge? Hard to discuss problems that generally are related to it if you don't actually know where it is at. As far as getting grumpy, I'll bet the enclosure you had her in before, allowed her to see out in all directions.

Craig

Hi,
How many vents are in the Vision? Taping over several of the vents will raise/maintain the humidity. I agree with the pervious poster-get a hygrometer to see exactly what your humidity levels are. They make 2 in 1 digital temperature/hygrometer gauges with probes that run about 25 dollars or so. They save alot of work and headache. Hope this helps.

Best regards,
Jeff

Have a wireless guage--- sorry I didn't put that in the first post-- OOps.

In the old cage- she was handleable, and humidity stayed around 50% -60% during the night --- all day it stayed about 70%-80%
The old cage was a screen top- I had aluminum foil on both sides of the screen- except for around a ceramic heat emmitter- it was taped down very well.

I bought the new vision cage specifically for her.
The cage has the built in light holder thing- for the emitter to sit in. It has a vent on the top for a uvb/uva and I have it covered up....
The humidity in the cage now- I have been gone all day -- is at a pathetic 32% ....
And she's pissed....

I am about to dig out a bigger screen top cage and see if I can get it working better than the vision...

~Beth
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The rescue site: www.freewebs.com/okreptilerescue

>>I am about to dig out a bigger screen top cage and see if I can get it working better than the vision...
>>

Don't change the cage, for one thing, those are nice cages for tree boas, and secondly, there are plenty of ways to increase humidity. You can buy a fogger, or just put a large water dish in there and run an air stone off of a 5$ fishtank air pump...just a couple ideas.

Also, make sure you're using a good spray bottle for misting. You need a bottle that puts a high volume of fine mist into the air. Some of the cheaper spray bottles just spray water into the cage, getting things wet but not really puting much into the air.

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mike Heinrich,
Mike@amazontreeboa.org
www.amazontreeboa.org

the heat emmiter- what watts and also do you have a thermo stat on it that could just be cooking in the cage? around 87 degrees. maybe thats the cause of the humidity and the bad shed....and yes dont get rid of the cage- vision is great

I think you're on the right track. High temps can also cause ill moods.

And if the snake mostly stays directly under the heat source it can dehydrate it & irritate it.

Best wishes, Beth!
HH
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Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American

www.natures-signature.com

CraigC is right, with out knowing what the humidity is at, it is hard to help fix the problem. And also, craigC is also right with your snake being able to see out of all 4 sides of your old tank. Not it is like you have a elimant of suprize to your snake.